On World Food Day, the United Nations and international aid groups have called for accelerated action to address the roots of food crises affecting some 1 billion people across the globe to break the cycle of famine and hunger in developing countries.
World Food Day 2011 was observed Sunday, Oct. 16, amid an increasingly complex humanitarian situation in the drought-hit Horn of Africa and concerns over the possible effect on global food prices of the massive floods in Southeast Asia. The day was marked worldwide by international organizations, led by U.N. food agencies based in Rome, Italy.
The Food and Agriculture Organization focused its observance around the theme “Food Prices — From Crisis to Stability” to highlight the effects of price volatility, particularly upswings, on people in developing countries. FAO head Jacques Diouf cited greater policy coordination, elimination of trade-distorting agricultural subsidies in rich countries, and longer-term investments in local agricultural systems as some of the ways the international community can mitigate this trend and its impact on the world’s most vulnerable population groups.
Oxfam International, meanwhile, highlighted the need for strategic measures such as disaster-resilience programs to break the cycle of famine and hunger in East Africa and elsewhere in the developing world, in order to prevent future crises that are of similar scale to the current one.
The World Food Program, for its part, focused on connecting hungry and malnourished children in the developing world with supporters and activists who can help them. The agency’s new campaign, “Feed a Child, Feed a Dream,” provides a glimpse into the lives and dreams of children benefiting from WFP feeding programs. The campaign also highlights ways to donate to the agency.
“Good nutrition provides the basic foundation for a better future. The onus is on all of us to mobilize the resources and awareness to make the dreams of every child come true,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said.
According to U.N. statistics, 13 percent of the world’s population were undernourished in 2008 while at least 16 percent of people in developing countries were facing hunger in 2010. The U.N. says this latest record of the percentage of hungry people in poor countries has gone down year on year, but remains significantly higher than the target percentage set as part of the first Millennium Development Goal.
Read more development aid news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders — emailed to you FREE every business day.
